Scars
by Tay91
Summary: What will happen to Leah and Jacob? "Regrouping after the battle was normally a happy, triumphant moment. Cheers, slaps on the back and tallying up kills." This is a story of angst, death and hopelessness. "These gossiping towns folk didn't know him anymore. He had changed so irreversibly. No one knew him anymore, not even himself."


Regrouping after the battle was normally a happy, triumphant moment. Cheers, slaps on the back and tallying up kills. It was supposed to be time for jokes and party food. Not today. All they could see was tress blurring past their vision with intense speed, a swirling mass of greenish brown blur all they can see. And all they could feel was panic and rage. But who could they feel.

Sweeping his head around Sam could see no Seth Clearwater, one of the cub of the group.

In a blind panic she was off. Off into the trees in pursuit of her brother. She needed to believe he was ok. He needed to be ok. She was the fastest of the pack, the smallest, the nimblest. And with a last ditch attempt to up her speed she found him. In a large, round natural clearing she found her brother, not alone.

Bloodsucker hanging over his limp, broken body. He had phased back, naked, blood drained and dead.

**_Dead!_**

The word rung through all their thoughts before a cloud of the strongest rage known to man and beast was let out. She may have thought she'd been angry before but no. No one has ever felt the sort of rage emitting from this one she-wolf, as her brother lay dead on the forest floor before her. Her vision clouded a deep bloody red. Her shoulders visibly shook with rage, the hair adorn her body standing tall.

With a last howl she phased back. The others pushing them selves as fast as they can, no inkling into what has happened to their sister, their pack member. Oh shit, Sue Clearwater is going to kill Sam, and he knows it. They all know it. What one feels they all do. Damn she's fast, too fast.

She's gone. No more scent to follow in this fucking downpour. Nothing. Seth's body lay broken and motionless and pale on the floor. A sharp contrast to his normal demeanour. A sense of loss hangs thick and heavy making the air all that more unbreathable. Everyone struggling with what to feel let alone think. The rain seeps through the over hanging trees at such a force it leaves a trail of steam in it's wake. The storm is here to stay, just like their grief.

"We need to go after her, leave Seth here, phone Sue and go after her now." Sam the stupid alpha always knew best. Jacob didn't agree with him normally but this time he won't stand for it. Feeling the defiance rising in his fellow pack members thoughts Sam knew the time has come. His time is up. Guarding his thoughts, he continues to form strategies with the others.

"No!" that single word had Sam on his knees, bowing his head to the rightful alpha. Everyone is scared and confused. "This is my mess. I will deal with it. I will take Seth home to his mother, I will search for Leah and you will all stay to patrol our town." With a voice full of authority he didn't even know he had he phased back and clothed.

Looking back at the guys they still looked shocked.

"I am willingly taking up my rightful place as alpha. You will follow me now." of corse Sam wouldn't just take this laying down. So phasing back himself he questioned the alpha, the true alpha, the only alpha.

"Your just a kid, the council saw fit to place me in charge and not you. How dare you take my pack from me."

Jacob always had the most self-control, Sam was shaking now, fists clenched tight, breathing laboured. How dare he call the alpha a kid. Who does he think he is?

"They will not follow you, you will follow me!" the alpha command laced thick with every word had no effect on him, on the alpha. How could it? He is the one and only alpha, always has always will be.

"Ephraim Black's heir was not born to follow Levi Uleys." and that was that. The pack was his.

After ordering they stay in LaPush to protect the tribe he dressed Seth and set off walking for the Clearwater house. Carrying one of his closest friends was heart wrenching. He was never coming back, never going to stick up for him again, never going to smile that eternally happy smile again. The sadness engulfed the young alpha as he walked to meet his maker. Sue Clearwater.

With a light knock on the back door he walked on through gently placing Seth on the couch. Sue emerges from the kitchen, her welcoming smile faltering then falling off completely with one look at him. She understands, he's gone, but the look on his face screams there's more!

There is more.

"She's gone, I have overrode Sam and I alone will search for her. I promise I will find her one way or another."

Sitting Sue down in the armchair he explains the whole battle and resulting consequences. Holding onto her hands in a tight embrace, he looks into her eyes.

"I will get her Sue, I promise. They will die for ever thinking they can touch my Lee!" Sue knew this day would come, the day the alpha admitted, albeit unintentionally, his true feelings for Leah.

With a small smile his way, a gentle squeeze of his hands, she stood up.

"Go Jake, I'll talk to Billy, I'll explain. We have each other, and besides I need to busy myself kicking Uley's worthless fucking ass!"

Placing his hands on her cheeks he uses the pads of his thumbs the wipe the remaining tears away. Taking a deep breath, one last look at his brother he heads for the forest .

"I'll get her Sue. I'll get her..."

That was the last time anyone saw Leah Clearwater.

That was sixteen years ago.

Sam Uley had resumed place as alpha, guarding LaPush as request from the council. Everyday the wolves all grieve for the lose of their pack members. There has been scouts where they have tried to find the missing members, but Sam called them off after the first year. They could all feel the emptiness the sudden loses created. The bloodsuckers moved on after a pretty strong conversation, resulting in a few missing vamp hands and broken wolf legs.

Life has since picked up and moved on. They buried Seth, grieved, and moved on. No one spoke of Leah and Seth after the one year mark. No one seemed to remember but Jacob, Sue and Billy. Sam and Emily married and had a son named Mark. Jared and Kim married soon after Sam, having a baby girl, Raven. All the others were imprinted and happy. No one hung onto the past, to what was lost. Except Jacob.

The world kept moving and so did LaPush. It was as if the two never existed. The fire was roaring as Billy told the soon to be cubs the wolf legends of their ancestors. Sam, Emily and a twelve year old excited Mark sat opposite Billy, while everyone else gathered on near by driftwood. Quil and Claire cuddled up, ignoring the world lost Inside one another, Embry and Becca talking with Rachel and Paul while Jared and Kim try to get eleven year old Raven to stop staring at Mark and listen to Billy. Colin and Brady had quit phasing and moved away together to go to college just weeks after Seth's death.

LaPush had become the happy place it once was, no more vampires, no more battles and no more tears. The only tears that lingered were those of Sue Clearwater and Billy Black, for it was their children lost forever. Jacob couldn't cry any more, even if he wanted to. There was no more tears left, it was impossible. He had returned after ten years of searching to find everyone else happy and moved on.

Jacob had become a shell of his former self, nothing but the smallest amount of lingering hope he still held onto kept him alive. He woke every night screaming, sweating and sobbing for the return of the woman he loves. He was the only remaining wolf. He walked through the forest, patrolling the tribe waiting for her everyday. Deep down he knew she would come back, deep down he was sure of it, but no one else believes him. Billy Black cried for the lose of his son's soul, the lose of his son.

They had all moved forward, got married, had kids, given up the wolf, forgotten Leah. Without any vampires the children would surely never phase. The world was normal once again. As the fire was dwindling Sue approached Jacob. He sat, as usual, by himself at the waters edge. He was soaked from the rising tide, but couldn't find it in himself to move. He wouldn't get sick, he was a wolf, wolves don't get sick. All it took was Sue to gently place her cold hand on his shoulder. No words of comfort, no words at all, just a single touch and he was gone. He lowered his head to his hands as he sobbed again. He was the most broken man that ever did live.

Sue and the rest of the party along with her packed up leaving the night to encase the beach and Jacob with it. He remained on the beach night after night for months hoping and praying that she would just sail on up the river. Of corse she never did. He remained the silent wolf, never acknowledging anyone or anything until he was alone with the moon.

"Goodnight Lee. I love you." The last words of the day, his only words of the day.

The children used to ask why uncle Jacob never spoke. Was he sick? Did he know how to even smile? Why was he sad? All the adults stopped the children from asking him, they tried to keep their children as far from him as Emily's small kitchen would allow. Truth was no one but Sue really knew what was the matter. Everyone chalked it up to Seth dying and the intense battles he must of faced in his ten years missing. Seth's death did contribute to his current state, but really it was Leah. He had learnt to except Seth as gone, as never to return. But Leah he didn't know where she was, what happened to her, who she was with, or worse if she was alive.

The one time he spoke to anyone since his return happened just yesterday, as Raven was studying the pictures on Emily's mantle in the lounge. Jacob sat staring unseeingly through the back window, waiting like normal, when she spoke to him.

"Mr Jacob." he was so taken aback that she spoke to him, he meet her eyes and nodded for her to continue.

"Who is this woman with you in the picture?"

She removed the wooden frame from the mantle, passing it towards him so he could see. Leah. It was him, Leah and Seth before the battle. All the children knew the legends are real and about Uncle Seth but no one saw fit to mention Leah.

"The woman is Leah. Or Aunty Leah to you. You remember the great new born battle your father told you of." Pausing Jacob saw her nodding.

"She is Seth's sister. Seth's older sister. She saw the vampire that killed Seth and ran after it. I searched and searched the world for ten years before I returned. I knew I couldn't leave it to uncle Sam anymore, so I made my way back."

He hadn't realised he was crying until Raven reached a hand across his face to remove the salty flowing liquid.

"Uncle Jake. Do you love her? Do you love Leah?" He honestly tried to smile as reassuringly as he could, and nodded his head.

"Like I never loved anyone else. I will always love her no matter where she is."

Jacob and Raven spent the rest of the afternoon talking and talking about Leah. It felt so good to speak to someone about her, who had no judgment to pass, someone who didn't know her. Everyone was so amazed that he spoke to anyone, let alone aloud them to call him Jake again that they made sure to leave her to it. She reminded him so much of Leah it was almost as if he was talking to her, but of corse he wasn't.

Another week passed and people continued to move on forgetting all about the single conversation he had had with Raven. Embry, Paul, Rachel and Becca all moved on with their lives out side of LaPush. Embry and Becca to Hawaii, Paul and Rachel to England. Emily, Sam, Jared, Kim and the kids stayed back in their home town just like Jacob.

He had no will to go anywhere, he had no will to do anything. He spent his mornings patrolling the woods, the afternoons babysitting Raven, back in silence, and the nights crying on the beach where his tears eventually helped him surpass into unconsienceness, and drown in his dreams.

No one had noticed how much worse he was doing, how unkept he was, how he refused to shave, how he couldn't even remember the last time he showered like a human, preferring to simply wade through a river wolf style instead. No one cared. He needed Leah to hurry up and come back, he was losing himself like he has lost everyone else. His father passed all but three months ago, now he was watching as the minister conducted a ceremony for Sue Clearwater. Everyone he ever loved was gone. Why did he have to suffer why did he have to live?

The scars ran deep. Jacob had accumulated his share of standard battle wounds over the ten years of searching for her, both physically and emotionally. He had found, while waiting for death, that he was immune to vampire venom, he was a freak among freaks. And in the last six years since his return he had continued to add to the mounting scars by his own hand.

Most nights can now be found with Jacob curled up in his late Fathers kitchen, knife in hand. He would watch as he slowly glided the sharp blade along his forearms with more force than necessary, over and over again until a scar remained, beating the enhanced wolf healing abilities.

See nothing is a given.

As he stood at the back of the outdoor ceremony clad in nothing more than a pair of cut off shorts, he could hear the whispers of the towns folk. They told each other what a mess he had become, how his own Dad would be turning in his grave. Their eyes lingered on his torso, on the scars. The round crescent teeth marks on his neck, shoulder, ribs and legs. The long deep claw marks from his neck to his stomach. And his self inflicted blade marks on both his arms. They talked about how scared and broken his body was. But they knew nothing of the real pain he held. They knew nothing of the emotional scars he accumulated from losing everyone and everything he ever held dear.

These gossiping towns folk didn't know him anymore. He had changed so irreversibly. No one knew him anymore, not even himself.


End file.
